Year 4 Spring half-term Homework Project: ‘Our Footprint on the Earth’

We have used ‘This Morning I Met A Whale’ to launch our project about the footprint humans are leaving on the planet.

We brainstormed many different ways this can be seen, including:
Global warming (rising temperatures)
Deforestation (cutting down too many trees for farms and raising animals for food)
Coral reefs dying
Plastic floating on the seas and being eaten by birds and other wildlife
Endangered animals
Humans fighting other humans
Pollution

We have also looked at some of the good things people are doing to try and ‘soften’ our footprint:
Trying to help the Thames Whale survive
Renewable energy like wind, solar and hydro (water) for less pollution
Protecting endangered animals
Recycling
Being better friends and understanding others to get along better

We have begun collecting our research in school and for homework.

Here are some helpful websites for our project:
Thames Whale News story
and
CBBC Newsround

Find out about carbon footprints here

Here is a guide to different types of energy

Press Pack Reports tell about what children across the UK think about the environment. Here, 11 year old Zahaib from Halifax has his say.

First News - a newspaper for children

National Geographic for Children

Message in the Waves is a website from the BBC Natural History Unit showing environmental challenges in the Hawaiian islands, especially difficulties faced by birds, sea life and people.

Zero Footprint Youth Calculator (follow the questions to see how you can help the environment)

To create a newspaper for your project, you can use the printing press template from Read Write Think. Click here to get started. You will need to print it once you've finished.

This Morning I Met A Whale!

Year 4 has been reading Michael Morpurgo’s chapter book This Morning I Met A Whale

It is based on the true story of the Thames Whale, which seems to have got lost and made its way into London up the Thames River in 2006.

The story is about a young boy named Michael, who at sunrise spots a whale on the shores of the Thames and thinks he must be dreaming. But the creature is real and brings a message for him - humans must mend the damage they are doing to the planet before it is too late. But how can Michael fulfil his promise to tell others when neither his teacher nor his classmates will believe his story?

The story is about one boy's special relationship with the whale that swam up the Thames. It also provides a powerful message about saving the environment.

DO NOT TOUCH! Year 4 Visit London's Science Museum

Children in 4N and 4L were filled with excitement about visiting the Science Museum on Wednesday.

We learned loads about energy, such as different ways to make it. For example, you can burn fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal, but these also pollute. Or ‘renewable’ ways are also possible, like solar (using the sun), hydro power (like wave power or dams) and wind (using giant windmills mainly along the coast of our island nation).

We also visited the museum’s ‘Launchpad’ area, where we had a go at ‘hands-on’ investigations. Many of the investigations involved forces, motion and electricity, which we’ve looked at in Year 4.

Here’s a short video of our experience,. Enjoy!

When Cludge met Varjak...

In reading 'Varjak Paw' this week, we met a new character: Cludge.

Cludge is a dog, and is described in the story at 'black and bristly, almost as big as a man. Its mouth was full of pointed yellow teeth which dripped with drool.'

4N wrote about the first time Cludge met Varjak Paw, from Cludge’s perspective. Enjoy:

Night time. Cludge walk in alleys. No friends with Cludge. Me lonely. Sad Cludge.

Cludge see cats! Cludge not scared. Go scare cats! Chase, like cars.

Cludge see cats in fight. Small dirty cat need help. Cludge save cat! All run away from Cludge. Dirty cat stay.

Oops! Cludge knock cat out. Blood. Cat ok? Look… cat wake up! Cludge sorry.

Cat talk to Cludge. He nice. Name Varjak. He say “Help me, Cludge.”

We go to save family. Cludge happy! Cludge, Varjak friends!

4N Explores Local Neighbourhood

4N became local geographers Thursday morning as groups of children investigated the streets around Glade Primary School.

We improved our map reading skills, collected and recorded fieldwork data and described how places around our school made us feel as we discovered 'sectors' drawn up by Mr Nicholson on a local map.

Take a look at our pictures and videos from the day to get a sample of what a great job we did (and what fun we had, too!!).

A big thank you to Mrs Kotecha, Mrs Ward, Mrs Allen, Mr Malloy and Mr Nicholson for being the adult support to their groups.

Hot Seat

Today in Good Works we demonstrated our questioning skills.

Swastika, Laura, Mohammad M, Veishnavan, Anu and Hannah played characters from Varjak Paw. Each of them answered questions in role directly from other children in 4N.

Jamila acted as the presenter.

Here are some pictures we took on our 'hot seat' day.

Varjak Paw (meow!)

Year 4 began the week looking at the cover of SF Said's book 'Varjak Paw'.

The children were only told that 'Varjak Paw' is the name of a cat. Using the front cover, they made predictions about the type of story it may be, discussed what they wanted to know about and noted what caught their attention and interest.

Here is a selection of their responses:

- The eyes grab my attention. (Khushi and Rajan)
- It looks like he's near a factory. (Ashley and Mahnoor)
- Does he have eyes at all? (Freddee and Muhammed M)
- Does the cat have a disability? (Laura and Layla)
- Does Varjak Paw have an owner? (Kulvinder and Jamima)
- Why does he have to fight? (Tiyah and Amaarah)
- Is this an adventure story? (Jamila and Izn)
- Is he a vampire cat? (Raymon and Hamida)
- Is he a ghost? (Laksaan and James)
- Is Varjak Paw a warrior cat? (Thivvian and Emma)
- Did he leave his family? (Veishnavan and Hannah)
- Jacqueline Wilson's comment makes me think 'what's going to happen?' (Anu and Swastika)

We're very excited about starting Varjak Paw!